Music > Interviews
Let's Eat Grandma
31/05/18
We caught up with Rosa and Jenny, the Norwich girls who make up Lets Eat Grandma. It is like our two yearly check with them, as we last interviewed them if 2016 and previously in 2014. How their careers have grown over that time and another great example of the talent that comes from our Fine City
It's been two years since your I, Gemini, your first album, what have you guys been doing during this time?
Rosa: I guess a lot of of touring and festivals in the first year or so, and then writing the next album.
Jenny: We’ve been quite busy in the last couple of years.
I can imagine! The new singles have a much clubbier vibe than I, Gemini does. Where did this influence come from?
Rosa: I think we just wanted people to dance! We’ve been to a lot of gigs that have been really fun… and I guess just expanding and writing something new. We wanted to try a bit more to write pop music.
If I understand correctly, these new, poppier songs were co-produced by SOPHIE and Faris Badwan. What was it like to work with them?
Jenny: So the songs that we did with them were Hot Pink and It’s Not Just Me. I think it was a really new experience for us because we’ve never collaborated writing with anyone before and we didn’t for any of the other tracks on the album either. We learnt quite a lot from them - we learnt new ways to write and we all had different strengths in the studio. I think we managed to create something quite unique from that.
I read that Hot Pink explores notions of femininity and masculinity. How influential is gender theory to your music, in general?
Rosa: It’s something that we think about a lot, so it’s natural that it’s going to come out, I guess. Hot Pink is about defying those stereotypes and celebrating femininity a bit more.
Jenny: I think those things come out in our music whether we’re even intending to write about them, just because that’s who we are as people. For example, I remember us being asked at one point, how we embrace our femininity on stage and I thought, ‘that’s a really funny question, you wouldn’t to ask a guy that’. But I definitely think for Hot Pink it was deliberate [laughs].
The video for Hot Pink is pretty striking. Where was it shot?
Rosa: It was shot in Ibiza. Because we wrote the song in LA with SOPHIE, all of the imagery we imagined for the video was tropical palm trees, sunsets...not the sort of thing you can get in the UK [laughs]. So we decided to go to Ibiza!
Did you get up to much else while you were out there?
Rosa: No, we flew back the next day. But it was still the closest to a holiday we’ve had in a while...
Will you take a break before your upcoming tour?
Rosa: Yeah, we’ve got a few things to do, but it requires the time.
Jenny: I mean, we’re kind of always low-key working, but we’re not working as hard as we have been.
How are you feeling about the US and Canada leg of the tour?
Jenny: Really excited. We’ve never done a full, really extensive US tour. It's nice actually being at home at the moment in Norwich - we’re just in my bedroom right now. I don’t know, we just really like being here. We’ve got a show coming up here, and we’re really excited about that. It’s probably the show that I’m looking forward to most.
Great! So what are your favourite aspects of the Norwich music circuit?
Jenny: We actually have a lot of friends on the Norwich music circuit. Obviously, it’s personal to us because this is where we’re from. I feel like there’s a really nice sense of community within young people making music in Norwich, especially because of the [Access Creative College]. We went there, we have friends who study there, and everyone goes to each other's gigs to support each other. For example we went to one of the SKYNT gigs last Thursday.
Where are your favourite places to play in Norwich?
Rosa: We haven’t played in Norwich for quite a long time, over a year, but we really like the Norwich Arts Centre]
Jenny: I do really like Epic as well…
Rosa: I like the Birdcage, to be honest!
Yeah, I think the Birdcage and Epic are hidden gems. So, what can Norwich expect from your upcoming gig?
Rosa: New stuff! New stuff, not much old stuff.
Jenny: Hopefully we’ve improved our stuff quite a lot since we’ve last played here, because it was so long ago.
Rosa: We’re probably really bad [laughs]...
Let’s Eat Grandma play Epic Studios on July 5th 2018